The disclosed embodiments of the present invention relate to decoding an input video bitstream, and more particularly, to a decoding method and decoding apparatus capable of using a parallel processing scheme to decode pictures in different bitstreams included in an input video bitstream after a required decoded data derived from preceding picture(s) is ready.
Three-dimensional (3D) video presentation technology is developed to improve the viewing entertainment of the end-users. For example, 3D glasses and 3D display devices are devised to realize the playback of the 3D video content. Regarding the 3D video content, it is commonly generated by using different cameras to thereby capture pictures of different views. The captured pictures of different views are then encoded to generate a plurality of bitstreams respectively corresponding to different views. In regard to a conventional decoding procedure, a sequential processing scheme is generally employed to decode the pictures one by one according to a decoding order, thereby generating reconstructed pictures of different views. However, such a decoding procedure using the sequential processing scheme is quite inefficient.